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College Over Zoom Is Causing Major Mental Strain
A college freshman shares her Covid-19 experience of entering the ‘real world’ from behind a screen
When you’re an incoming freshman, everyone tells you that college will be one of the most exciting periods in your life. You move out, meet new people, and start a serious education at a new school. It’s supposed to be the ultimate fresh start. For me, that meant moving away from home, finally studying and fully investing myself in what I love, and having new opportunities to grow as a person.
But in March 2020, the excitement of ending my senior year of high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and beginning my freshman year of college at Drexel University became a massive clash of stress and anxiety. One day, I drove home from high school and never went back. Looking back on March 2020, I remember the final week of in-person school as if it were one long blurry dream. During that last week, when coronavirus loomed over us, my classmates and I still jumped into a ball pit as part of a senior-year celebration, something that — even in a post-Covid-19 world — I will likely never do again. On what would turn out to be my final day of school, my English class went on a field trip to see a play, and at intermission, we sat staring at our phones, reading off the names of colleges that announced they were sending students home. Later that day, I told a teacher I wouldn’t mind moving to remote learning, granted I thought it would only be for a couple of months.
The months leading up to what was supposed to be my move-in date became weeks of deciphering vague university plans all while trying to have a “normal” college experience. I had envisioned my move-in day and welcome week as the time when I would meet new people, explore Philadelphia, find my way around campus, and take in-person classes. As I began to prepare to move out of my parents’ home, I received the dreaded email: My classes were moved to remote instruction, and there would be no on-campus living for the fall quarter. Suddenly my parent’s dining room became the new lecture hall, my childhood bedroom my dorm.
